Obituary of Eleanor Davis Scully

Following her birth on February 21, 1920, Eleanor Susan Davis was brought home to her family’s farm in Charlton Depot, Massachusetts. In 1942, she graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. That June, Eleanor met her beloved husband Robert Gardiner Scully, a student at Boston Theological Seminary and the summer pastor at Charlton Methodist Church. Six days later, they decided to be married on Christmas Day 1942. The Reverend Doctor Robert G. and Eleanor Davis Scully’s fifty-nine years of marriage began in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1969, they moved to Findlay, where Robert became the senior pastor at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, from 1969 to 1974. They returned to Findlay in 1983, when Dr. Scully retired from full-time ministry. Eleanor died on December 18, 2015; Robert predeceased her on December 9, 2001. Eleanor committed her life to her husband Robert and their family. Four children, eight grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren survive them: Susan Eleanor Walsmith (Joseph); Joseph M. Walsmith (Janet), Ella, Maya, and Sienna Walsmith; Virginia Walsmith Ritchey (Jed), Haley, and Nancy Sue Ritchey; Martha Inez Stevens (James), Merrill Jane Hoekstra (Douglas), Christian and Paul Hoekstra; Lauren Ann Stevens, Luca Capitani, and Kye Stevens; Mary Jane Chubb Robinson, William Chubb Robinson (Kelly), Jake and Cody Robinson; Johnathan Chubb Robinson and Hunter Lee Robinson; and Robert Richard Scully (Ellen) and Kyle Elizabeth Scully. A book about Eleanor’s life titled, Oh, My, was published on behalf of her twenty-three descendants (to date). She often prefaced a sentence by saying, “Oh, my.” As she expressed in the closing sentence of her memoirs, “Oh, my, I’ve had a charmed life, and best of all, I know it.” A graveside service to honor her life and give thanks for her devotion to her family took place on December 23, 2015. Eleanor was laid to rest beside Robert at Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati. On the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, in 1992, Eleanor remarked, “For both of us, it was absolutely ‘love at first sight.’” If desired, donations may be made in Eleanor's name to Goodwill Industries, 15819 Indianola Dr., Rockville, MD (20855), Hospice of Cincinnati, PO Box 633597(45263-3597), or The Alzheimer's Association, 644 Linn St., Suite #1026 (45203).